The short version is that my turn signals do not work at all (none of them), nor do my hazard lights. Additionally, when I tried to figure out which wire was the ground and which was positive for the turn signal, they both appear to be ground. To check this, I set the multimeter to measure volts, turned the turn signal on, put the positive probe on the positive end of the battery and tested both terminals inside the light socket with the negative end, and for both terminals, it completed a circuit and showed me 12+ volts. I don’t have a lot of experience with volt meters, so maybe I’m doing something wrong, but if one of those wires was receiving current (as it should have been since the turn signal was on), it wouldn’t have completed a circuit, would it?
Here is the longer backstory (note: I posted part of this previously, but no one has responded and it has been several days, and the situation has changed some since then).
I just bought a 2004 grand Cherokee (my first jeep) that I'm trying to fix up and get through road-worthy.
When I first got it, the passenger's side headlights and turn signals worked fine, but the driver's side were screwed up. The normal beams worked, but when I turned on high beams, the turn signal bulb illuminated and was crazy bright (the high beam bulb did nothing). However, if I activated the right (drivers) turn signal, the high beam bulb flashed dimly.
I thought this was a side effect of the previous owner installing, then removing some aftermarket driving lights. After a week of trying to find the problem, I gave up and decided to temporarily splice into the wire for the turn signal on the side of the car (just by the door) and run that wire through the drives turn signal (the plan was to do this just to get it through road-worthy, then keep looking for the actual problem). So I ran that wire (from the side turn signal to the main turn signal, then back to the other half of the wire on the side turn signal), and when I tested it, the turn signal flashed rapidly twice, then they all went all over the entire car and haven’t worked since. I have since put the wiring back to its original configuration, but still the turn signals don’t work.
However, for some magical reason that I don’t understand, my high beams are working correctly now.
I have no idea what is going on or how to fix it. I can’t find any fuses that look bad, but it seems like it has to be a fuse or a relay somewhere.
I checked the notorious turn signal relay under the dash, and the casing was blue and looked new, so I suspect it was recently replaced. I opened it up, and the terminals all looked like they were in really good shape. Also, my understanding was that that relay doesn’t affect the hazards.
If anyone has any clue how to fix this, I would really appreciate it. Thanks.
Here is the longer backstory (note: I posted part of this previously, but no one has responded and it has been several days, and the situation has changed some since then).
I just bought a 2004 grand Cherokee (my first jeep) that I'm trying to fix up and get through road-worthy.
When I first got it, the passenger's side headlights and turn signals worked fine, but the driver's side were screwed up. The normal beams worked, but when I turned on high beams, the turn signal bulb illuminated and was crazy bright (the high beam bulb did nothing). However, if I activated the right (drivers) turn signal, the high beam bulb flashed dimly.
I thought this was a side effect of the previous owner installing, then removing some aftermarket driving lights. After a week of trying to find the problem, I gave up and decided to temporarily splice into the wire for the turn signal on the side of the car (just by the door) and run that wire through the drives turn signal (the plan was to do this just to get it through road-worthy, then keep looking for the actual problem). So I ran that wire (from the side turn signal to the main turn signal, then back to the other half of the wire on the side turn signal), and when I tested it, the turn signal flashed rapidly twice, then they all went all over the entire car and haven’t worked since. I have since put the wiring back to its original configuration, but still the turn signals don’t work.
However, for some magical reason that I don’t understand, my high beams are working correctly now.
I have no idea what is going on or how to fix it. I can’t find any fuses that look bad, but it seems like it has to be a fuse or a relay somewhere.
I checked the notorious turn signal relay under the dash, and the casing was blue and looked new, so I suspect it was recently replaced. I opened it up, and the terminals all looked like they were in really good shape. Also, my understanding was that that relay doesn’t affect the hazards.
If anyone has any clue how to fix this, I would really appreciate it. Thanks.
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